Raven's Unexpected Christmas
by yellow 14
Summary: Five year old Raven Queen is not expecting anything special to happen at Christmas, but maybe she's wrong. My Christmas oneshot for this year


Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.

AN: Ok, this is a bit late, but here is my Christmas oneshot. Raven is around five in this.

Raven Queen hated Christmas.

It was hard to believe that a five year old could actually hate Christmas. Most of her friends were eager for the coming of Santa Claus and the Christmas celebrations and the presents. Raven however didn't live in a 'normal' family though. No, Christmas meant sitting on her mother's knee and watching as she planned with her evil minions on just how they could use the season for their own gain. There were no decorations, no presents and certainly no visits from Santa Claus. (The last time he had tried, Raven's mother had almost hijacked his sledge to transport her evil minions around. After that, she had placed spells to stop him from coming.) So it was no surprise that Raven hated Christmas.

It was Christmas Eve and the young Raven was hurrying down a long dark corridor. Like almost every part of the castle, it was crawling with servants and minions and monsters alike and Raven had to concentrate on where she was going. The last thing she wanted to do was run into someone and apologise. If she did that, she was sure her mother would hear and no doubt chastise her. Her mother wanted her to come to the planning room, something about seeing her plans to launch an invasion of somewhere or another on Christmas day. Raven wasn't sure she wanted to know, but when mother called, you didn't leave her waiting.

Raven turned a corner, one that would normally lead her to the War Room. Normally. But this time, it was something different, something she had never seen before, at least, not in the castle.

The room in front of her was brightly lit with a stream of colourful decorations criss-crossed the ceiling and brightly coloured Christmas cards sat comfortably on the fireplace mantle. In the left-hand corner of the room stood a massive tree, one covered in intricate decorations and brightly coloured lights. It was so massively unexpected that Raven rubbed her eyes in disbelief and stood there for a few minutes just staring with her mouth slightly open.

"Why don't you come in dear?" a friendly voice asked and a lady took Raven by the hand and led her into the room. The lady was one that she had never seen before, with long blonde hair and a surprisingly pale face even by winter standards and soon the room began to fill with people who looked exactly like her. It should have been worrying, disconcerting even, but young Raven felt surprisingly calm.

"Where am I?" she asked and the lady smiled.

"You're at a place somewhere beyond the usual boundaries of time and space," she replied, leading Raven into the centre of the room. "Would you like to play a game?"

"Yes please!" Raven replied excitedly, her face lighting up.

"Well sit down here my dear," the woman told her, gesturing to a small chair that hadn't been there five minutes ago and soon Raven was sitting in a circle of five or six children (Raven wasn't entirely confident with her counting) One child had a gift wrapped present put in their hands and music started playing. Raven was puzzled; she'd never played this game before. The children were passing the parcel along and when it reached her, she simply played along. Suddenly the music stopped and there was a squeal of delight from the child who had it at the time. With a flurry of activity, the child unwrapped the gift to reveal….another parcel wrapped in different wrapping. Then the music started again and the parcel was passed around once more.

Soon the parcel had been reduced to a small present wrapped at the centre and there was an excited tension in the air. Every child wanted to be the one who opened the parcel next but Raven had just taken it when the music suddenly stopped. Tentatively, she unwrapped the parcel to reveal…a small bag of glass marbles that seemed to glow and sparkle from their very core. Raven just stared in awe.

"Those are called Starfire Marbles my dear," the woman said kindly and she picked one up. "There's a magical charm at their core that allows them to sparkle, no matter where they are."

The next game they played was musical statues, a game Raven actually recognised. There were some very odd poses when the music stopped and she couldn't help but laugh. Then there was something called Blind Man's Bluff, a game of chaotic running and squeals. Raven chased the other children and giggled like a mad thing when she bumped into them with a triumphant cry of "Caught you!" when she did.

In what seemed like no time at all, the party began to wind down and suddenly tables appeared in the room, laden with Christmas food. Raven's stomach began to rumble and soon she was helping herself to the food laid out before her, food she had never tasted before like mince pies and Christmas pudding. She wasn't sure she liked Christmas pudding, but the mince pies were nice and the turkey was pleasant.

Then the sound of sleigh bells began ringing through the room and an air of excitement flowed through the room. Raven wasn't sure why, but like the other children there she was swept up in the wave of excitement.

Suddenly the doors parted and someone she had never expected to see walked into the room with a sack over his shoulder. In exactly the same manner as she had done when she first saw the party, Raven rubbed her eyes and stared in disbelief. She never expected to see this man within a hundred miles of this place and yet, here he was.

"Ho, ho, ho!" he boomed, breaking the spell of disbelief that had settled over Raven. Somehow (and Raven didn't know precisely how) she was looking at none other than Santa Claus himself. He pulled up a chair, sat down and looked straight at Raven. There was a moment's silence and then he spoke once more.

"Come here Raven," he said and Raven stared in disbelief. She was the daughter of the Evil Queen; she was supposed to be evil. She was certainly not meant to be even noticed by Santa Claus, let alone be called up by him. He smiled gently at her and reached into his sack to withdraw a present. "Come now Raven, I haven't made a mistake," he stretched out his hand with the present still in it. Tentatively, Raven stepped forward and gently took the present from his hand. It was roughly the size of a paperback book, but in this case it was an oval shape instead of a rectangular one.

"Th-thank you," she said in something of a daze. Did this mean she didn't HAVE to be evil? That she wasn't born bad? It was a little too much for her young mind to process, but a seed had taken root.

"You're most welcome," Santa told her with a smile and he winked at her. "Now don't open it until you get home, okay?"

"Home? But…" Raven began, suddenly confused when suddenly the world around her dissolved into a blur and suddenly she was waking up on her own bed, with it's dark purple and black bedding and walls.

"It was just a dream," she said sadly as she stared up at the dark ceiling, but as she sat up, she noticed something. Her right hand was curved around an object, a present. The very same present she had received from Santa. Suddenly cheered up, she jumped out of bed to tell her father.

AN: Okay, a bit late and not my best, but I hope you liked it.


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